I have to be honest; I would much prefer to listen to ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ than watch ‘Hancock’s escapades in the jungle’.

I appreciate that this probably puts me in the minority given the popularity of ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ but I simply don’t get a kick out of watching famous people do weird things like crawling among spiders or eating unmentionable parts of a kangaroo!

This is especially true when it comes to politicians who are said to be earning a hefty sum when they are already being paid a pretty good wage to serve their constituents. I can only agree with Mr Hancock’s local vicar when he says: “Our MP has clearly neglected his constituents by going into the jungle.” It will be interesting to see how he will fare when he returns to the political jungle. He might well find that far more demanding given the fact that chief whip, Simon Hart has already stated that his decision was “serious enough to warrant suspension of the whip with immediate effect”.

Having said that though my ears certainly pricked up when I heard that he had spent a little time talking about forgiveness when reflecting on the way he broke social distancing rules during the pandemic by having an affair with his colleague. In response to a fellow contestant who criticised his behaviour he is reported to have said “what I’m really looking for is a bit of forgiveness, that’s what I’m really looking for. We all make mistakes. I made a pretty big one.”

If he did say that then he’s hit the nail on the head: he does need forgiveness. Thankfully He only has to ask God and he will find it. We should never doubt God’s willingness to forgive us. That is what makes the Christian message so exciting and so relevant. No one is beyond His forgiving embrace, and I do hope that Matt Hancock will discover that because it could change his life. As someone wisely wrote ‘forgiveness is as indispensable to the life and health of the soul as food is for the body’ and sensible people know that everyone of us needs it. And strangely enough there are times when that can also mean forgiving ourselves!

But as I reflected on the former Health Secretary’s frank admission I couldn’t help thinking of some familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer ‘Forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us’. These are incredibly challenging words because they tell us that if we want to be forgiven we must become forgiving people too, and that can sometimes prove very costly indeed. But challenging as it might be for some of us with God’s help we can forgive others no matter how badly they have hurt us. Several decades of ministry has provided me with more than enough evidence of that. There are times when I have been absolutely staggered, in fact humbled by the way I’ve seen some Christians respond to those who have treated them abominably.

And it’s been life enhancing too. Bitterness can cripple us and ruin our lives but my experience has shown me that those who are determined to forgive others have discovered the key to a much happier and much more fulfilling life.